If this is the real deal - the leak or the "oops" slip ... this is some freaking news ... not because of the AC3 but because Ubisoft managed yet again to piss off nintendo.

Why ... that's because this might confirm WiiU will be released like 2 or 3 months before year end - that's significant news.

The only question holding back the validity is the fact that the platforms have been named in general but not noted if it's going to be simultaneous release - but if no such comment was made as to ... "except this platform comes TBA" or something... it's looking on the busted side.

Or a mistake. If Nintendo doesn't have the Wii U out before then obviously they have no platform to sell the game on. It tells us that Ubisoft has a prototype Wii U model and is developing the game for Wii U. Impressive by itself because there's no way the Wii's hardware could handle AC3. This tells us the Wii U is at least on par, hardware wise, with the Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3.

Or a mistake. If Nintendo doesn't have the Wii U out before then obviously they have no platform to sell the game on. It tells us that Ubisoft has a prototype Wii U model and is developing the game for Wii U. Impressive by itself because there's no way the Wii's hardware could handle AC3. This tells us the Wii U is at least on par, hardware wise, with the Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3.

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I would love see Nintendo get this out First befor M$ and sony try milking the market like there do.

The main reason Nintendo may be pushing the WiiU is due to the XBox360's Kinnect selling very well. Anyhow The WiiU should get a long head start. If the rumors are true, this new system is going to blow away anything in the market today in terms of PQ and graphics/Sound.

Or a mistake. If Nintendo doesn't have the Wii U out before then obviously they have no platform to sell the game on. It tells us that Ubisoft has a prototype Wii U model and is developing the game for Wii U. Impressive by itself because there's no way the Wii's hardware could handle AC3. This tells us the Wii U is at least on par, hardware wise, with the Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3.

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WiiU version are all delayed obviously ... Darksiders 2 probably won't have simultaneous release as fars as i heard. AC3 indicated it's launching simultaneously - that means the console might be out before or at the same date.

WiiU is about 5 times more powerful overall than X360 - feature wise it's the easiest platform to develop for.

Darksiders 2 is a port - and those devs don't have the latest kits that's why they're saying sill stuff "on par" ... they mean their game won't be, not the hardware.

The main reason Nintendo may be pushing the WiiU is due to the XBox360's Kinnect selling very well. Anyhow The WiiU should get a long head start. If the rumors are true, this new system is going to blow away anything in the market today in terms of PQ and graphics/Sound.

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Epic is pushing for hardware buffs as well - many devs are also reporting that nintendo is listening to a lot of dev wishes and feedback - they seriously want to recapture 3rd parties now.

The point is ... this console will work on day 1 - you won't have shit like RROD - it's nintendo quality, even if we all expect to not be more powerful than nextbox - it'll still be in the same ballpark since 20% isn't that much - feature wise won't be that behind as much as Wii is behind x360.

But all the rumors about WiiU being "on par" with PS360 .. later being "50% more powerful" and later "2x times the power" all are OLD INFO ...

"on par" is a popular darksiders 2 miscontext by a lot of sites who have no idea what they're talking about

50% is the early E3 rumor from analysts and journalists who again aren't tech people and have little idea ... those were the times when the kits were overheating and GPU was underclocked.

2x rumor was later in somewhere mid-late 2011 when kits were improving ..

but the actuall WiiU is 5 times the power --- a specs buffs were made pretty much all the time until early 2012 when nintendo accepted ANOTHER specs buff that EPIC Games pushed for more specs but no details from the rumor - UE4 will run no doubt - engine's capability to run is feature-wise not raw power alone so UE4 would run anyways , but they want the game to look actually the cost of making an WiiU specific port of the UE4 engine worthwhile.

Ruski, you really seem to know your stuff, huh? I'm a Nintendo fan, and even though I do my best to keep up with the news, I didn't know a lot of the stuff you mentioned, which if true, very glad to hear. I'm the type who would buy WiiU on launch day regardless. Not to sound like a fanboy, but no other console will give me the Zelda experience.

Ruski, you really seem to know your stuff, huh? I'm a Nintendo fan, and even though I do my best to keep up with the news, I didn't know a lot of the stuff you mentioned, which if true, very glad to hear. I'm the type who would buy WiiU on launch day regardless. Not to sound like a fanboy, but no other console will give me the Zelda experience.

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Yeah ... do know ... i rather won't mention how i made to know a lot of stuff about WiiU (didn't knew for half a year and then in one week of holidays pretty much flat out researched this whole thing ... unhealthy practise )

The most of these info doesn't get a lot of media coverage ... it's limited to ninendo specific sites and rumor mills.

The biggest info we need to get it total amount of ram ... that's the part where im personally most worried for. Everything else they pan out seems fine and is what we expect.

Yeah ... do know ... i rather won't mention how i made to know a lot of stuff about WiiU (didn't knew for half a year and then in one week of holidays pretty much flat out researched this whole thing ... unhealthy practise )

The most of these info doesn't get a lot of media coverage ... it's limited to ninendo specific sites and rumor mills.

The biggest info we need to get it total amount of ram ... that's the part where im personally most worried for. Everything else they pan out seems fine and is what we expect.

What specific thing would you like to know ?

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I think it's good that you do... whatever is it that you do. What I'm really looking forward to in the WiiU is a new improved online experience. I have a PS3, and I personally don't think PSN is all that great. I wish they'd make things more... "MMO'ish" in terms of sociability. Nintendo needs to be more "open minded" in that aspect.

I think it's good that you do... whatever is it that you do. What I'm really looking forward to in the WiiU is a new improved online experience. I have a PS3, and I personally don't think PSN is all that great. I wish they'd make things more... "MMO'ish" in terms of sociability. Nintendo needs to be more "open minded" in that aspect.

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Nintendo will fuck it up, and badly. Remember when the Wii was announced, they were so sure their Gamespy-powered Online Service would be a perfect answer to Xbox Live. Several years later it's still a piece of crap. I expect Nintendo's Network to be on par for PSN (in its early years) for the first couple years. Xbox Live is still the gold standard for Console's, and even though I like my PS3, PSN is not even close.

What Nintendo should have done, was tried to hire someone like Valve to design their network solution. But of course they would rather try and do it themselves, and it's probably going to suffer greatly. On top of the fact that the WiiU is going to cost about $400-500, I just don't see it as that appealing. The N64 was the last dazzling system Nintendo made, and with all the information leaking, I am really only interested in Durango and Orbis.

Nintendo will fuck it up, and badly. Remember when the Wii was announced, they were so sure their Gamespy-powered Online Service would be a perfect answer to Xbox Live. Several years later it's still a piece of crap. I expect Nintendo's Network to be on par for PSN (in its early years) for the first couple years. Xbox Live is still the gold standard for Console's, and even though I like my PS3, PSN is not even close.

What Nintendo should have done, was tried to hire someone like Valve to design their network solution. But of course they would rather try and do it themselves, and it's probably going to suffer greatly. On top of the fact that the WiiU is going to cost about $400-500, I just don't see it as that appealing. The N64 was the last dazzling system Nintendo made, and with all the information leaking, I am really only interested in Durango and Orbis.

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Although I hate to admit it, I believe you're 100% correct on the whole online thing. I have a PS3, with like, ONE game for it (Mortal Kombat), because I really just use it to watch BluRay movies and stuff, and I got it for free. The Wii's online is sooooo lame, I learned that the hard way after playing Smash Bros. Brawl for a while. PSN isn't exactly good as you mentioned. I also used to have a 360, but sold it because I didn't like it (and before it contracted RROD, lol). I highly doubt that the WiiU will cost more than $300, but we shall see. I might be interested in Orbis as we approach it, but Durango lost my interest a while ago. Actually, it never had it to begin with.

Although I hate to admit it, I believe you're 100% correct on the whole online thing. I have a PS3, with like, ONE game for it (Mortal Kombat), because I really just use it to watch BluRay movies and stuff, and I got it for free. The Wii's online is sooooo lame, I learned that the hard way after playing Smash Bros. Brawl for a while. PSN isn't exactly good as you mentioned. I also used to have a 360, but sold it because I didn't like it (and before it contracted RROD, lol). I highly doubt that the WiiU will cost more than $300, but we shall see. I might be interested in Orbis as we approach it, but Durango lost my interest a while ago. Actually, it never had it to begin with.

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It's bumping up from a more than 10 year old CPU to an upgraded variant of the Xenos CPU that the Xbox 360 currently uses, and implementing an HD4850/70-based GPU, as well as adding more RAM and those ungodly controllers. I expect the base system might cost $300, but those controllers will cost around $100-150. If Nintendo sold the WiiU for $300, it would be at an extreme loss, and they don't have the software catalog to make that work. So you're looking at a probably $400-500 console, with mediocre online (at best), very limited\no internal storage, limited\no multimedia support (forget Blu-Ray, never gonna happen, and you'll be lucky to get DVD support), with the trade off being you can finally do gaming in HD, and the games don'[t look like unicorn vomit. For that price tag is it really worth it?

I think it's good that you do... whatever is it that you do. What I'm really looking forward to in the WiiU is a new improved online experience. I have a PS3, and I personally don't think PSN is all that great. I wish they'd make things more... "MMO'ish" in terms of sociability. Nintendo needs to be more "open minded" in that aspect.

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Here you go:

User Specific Accounts (no more friend codes)

Anonymous source said "that Nintendo Network will include many new features that haven’t been used before by Nintendo"

Iwata confirmed there might be retail software sold on eShop.

Nintendo does not like the current DLC model - still developing the method for updates fro their 1st-party software. However they will not prohibit 3rd-parties from using locked on-disc DLC(item billing)

Physical dimensions of the console provided at E3 2011 are not final.

Miyamoto: "Network has to have a totally new concept to be different."

Blunt: "I...can't answer that at the moment," - asked about achievement system.

Reggie: "Our approach [to online] will be a flexible one, literally taking the best of what each of our third party partners has to offer, marrying that with the best of what Nintendo does, and bringing that versus a more rigid, a more closed type of environment."

Scibbeta: "We're not going to have a centralized one type fits all approach, it is going to be more the publishers trying to figure out what they want to do and we'll try to bring that to life and make sure our platform can support that vision."

Nintendo plans a full fledged app store for the Wii U - no details if it's similar to others were provided.

There may be an ability based on what Miyamoto said to switch the view to watch what a friend of yours is playing.
There was no indication of a fee for the online system.

Ghost Recon online confirmed achievements for the game - the achievement system for Nintendo Network is therefore still in question whether it's a global system or game-specific one.

Achievements are nothing special, every game can have it, it's a triggered banner and event when you do something ... wow how cool - nothing new. The answer what people want to be is obviously the global achievements when you can see your firends ones because the online system supports and game supports the actual feature of the connection which is nothing special again. Personally i never cared about achievements ... spoiled kind of dudebro worthless things .. im used to old secret-areas and hints that were much harder to find and actually pose a challenge to play the game ... these kind of "you killed all soliders in this room you get medal woohoo" kind of crap is totally unappealing ... except if you're 12 years old and less.

I would buy WiiU even if it had the same online as Wii - cause i don't care about it much ... ... those features would be useful 6+ years ago when we played tons of super smash bros ... so local mp was only way and remembering all the great time ...
... then again see what i mean ... for all those house parties and actually enjoying time i would never ever replace that with online.

Achievements are dumb. Seriously, I never even bother to look at them on PSN or PC. They're completely meaningless. The only way they could be worth "something," is if you get points that you can use to buy stuff at their online store. That way I'd actually bother to complete the ridiculous tasks they ask for in order to receive these "achievements."

Anyways, thanks for the info, and @xenocide, I still highly doubt that the WiiU will be anything more than $300, but again, we shall see. After all, Nintendo isn't Sony (and that's a good thing).

Achievements are dumb. Seriously, I never even bother to look at them on PSN or PC. They're completely meaningless. The only way they could be worth "something," is if you get points that you can use to buy stuff at their online store. That way I'd actually bother to complete the ridiculous tasks they ask for in order to receive these "achievements."

Anyways, thanks for the info, and @xenocide, I still highly doubt that the WiiU will be anything more than $300, but again, we shall see. After all, Nintendo isn't Sony (and that's a good thing).

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The price is rumored and incidated by nintendo that i will not exceed 300$ - they don't want to make the same mistake as with 3DS

Renaming was rumored in fall 2011 ... now in early 2012 regional nintendo offices also have been wanting a rename. not confirmed rumor.

Definitely. but it might be 300€ in europe which we all know is a currency-value ripoff.

I won't buy it for 300€ ... i don't plan buying it in the first year either or until price drops, unless i get a lottery win, though i will be following it very close

Nintendo is also hampered in some ways by the tablet controller. Putting something innovative into a new console is pretty much expected, and the tablet controller is Nintendo's big innovation for the Wii U, not raw horsepower. The tablet controller, with its color LCD touchscreen, is not going to be an inexpensive component. This would tend to push the price of the Wii U (which consists of a Wii U console plus a single tablet controller, according to sources) higher; keeping the retail price of the whole package low means cutting back on the capability of the GPU, CPU, RAM and other components in order to keep the price at the desired level.

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Exactly as I said. If they want a console that is more powerful than the PS/360, and those expensive tablet controllers, the cost will be significantly higher. The only way you'll see the Wii U around $300 is if it's stripped down a lot and barely more or as powerful as the last generation Sony\Microsoft offerings.

EDIT: The article also confirms the idea that you can only use 1 Tablet Controller at a time.